Ki Choi Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 We visited our son at his college and stopped at the Sony Styles store near the campus of University of Washington where they had the latest Blue Ray players and 1080P dislays. One of their large 50" Plasmas had "before" and "after" images demonstrating how much better the 1080P was but not sure what the lesser resolution images were... It was quite convincing demo viewing it less than 6' away. Then I came home... watched Nora Jones story on 60min (didn't know that her father is Ravi Shankar...) and proceeded to watch the Grammy Awards on CBS over the air broadcast in 720P HDTV images projected 13' away from Infocus 720 on 110" Black Hawk screen. The details are so good, I just can't see how much better it can be than 720P for distant viewing... I am thankful I don't know any better...and told my wife she doesn't have to worry...I would not be upgrading to 1080P anytime soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSport Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I think a 720p is an unsung hero of big screen TVs...quite the bargain...I picked up a Sony 50" rear projection TV in 720p over the last Holidays...no regrets and quite a savings to the wallet. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 silversport: I cannot agree with your comments. I do believe that anything over 40" should be 1080P. I personally have a Sony KDL-46XBR2 LCD 1080P which is absolutely stunning on OTA live news broadcasts and the Super Bowl. The resolution is far better than film (Seabiscuit, ABC) but I do not have a Bluray or HD-DVD player yet so don't know how the films look from disc. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ki Choi Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 JJK: It's been a while since I was deep into getting the maximum out of the OTA broadcast HDTV programs but most of the networks send their signal in 720P max. So, what you saw on Super Bowl was 720P...[] It was still good though.. For truely 1080P mastered programs in Blue Ray would certainly be better than 720P on any size screens but my opinion is that when you get farther away than ~10', I am not sure if human eyes can differentiate the image resolution between 1080P and 720P- not my tired eyes anyway... Ki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I have to agree with you....720P is fine...........I am in no rush to update to 1080.....my OLD and Tired eyes thinks 480p is something............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bismarck Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 720p is great, but 1080p is better. 1 million pixels or 2 million. If I were to look all day long at a slew of 720 and 1080 resolution TV's that are fed 720, there will be no difference, sure. But as soon as an HD-DVD player or Blue Ray is attached, or even this new VMD competitor there is a difference given the TV is big enough. The problems I have with buying a 720 TV now is that 1) you already have the TV maxed out and 2) I want to use the TV as a computer monitor so 1080 is nice. Nowadays there is maybe a 300-500 dollar difference to step into a 1080 TV from a 720 in most cases so it isn't a ridiculous amount more. With all that said, I am still cheap and would buy the 720 and be happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSport Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 JJ...not saying it is BETTER just that at least for now, it is not necessary...if you have blue ray and whatnot...you are seeing a better picture...I got my 50 inch Sony rear projection TV for $1150 after all the rebates and a price match at Sears...the next best price I could find was for last years Sony 50" SXRD at $1899.99 plus tax...ALMOST twice the price after tax...THAT is all I meant...if it was only $300-$500...I would be watching the SXRD...as for maxed out at 720p...not by a long shot...MUCH of it is still in 480... Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easylistener Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I use my 100" 720p projector with my computer. The picture is awsome and using a HTPC the picture from dvd's are great. If your not using a computer to upscale then you are still watching vhs, that is how big of differnce it can be. On another note even the movies are only shot on a 720p or 1080i camaras and the upscaled to 1080p. The real advantage of 1080p is the 24 fps, if you tv and source can play it. This takes huge amounts of computing power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 The TV stations in my area are: NBC-1080i, ABC-720P, FOX-720P, CBS-1080i, and the other channel is 1080i and I don't remember what PBS is. My old Sony CRT HDTV 34HS510 was 720P and my new one just blows the CRT clean away. I gave the old one to my uncle. My new LCD is rated the full 1920 x 1200 resolution whereas my old one was 1440 x 1080 and it would choke on the full 1920 if I fed it analog wise. Although the picture was fine on a 34" and it was also comparable to my other Sony LCD 23" which is 1360 x ?. The size of the screen does make a huge difference to the viewer resolution wise depending on how far away you are from the set. I can view my HDV m2t files (1440) and they look much better on the new LCD. Same with 2200 x 2200 jpg stills. The Microsoft HD-WMV files are outstanding. The FOX channel live news does a small segment on viewers sending in blog comments on IE7 and the detail is just unbelievable, just like looking at a huge computer monitor and it blew me away. I could easily read everything and every small print on the interface, there was nothing that could not be read. I have had Samsung T165 (2), LG 3510A , MY-DVD 120 external tuners and the built in Sony tuner is the most sensitve and the quickest to lock on digital channels. The MY-DVD 120 is the next best. I would estimate that the Sony tuner is about 6- to 10 db more sensitive. I am one happy camper with this set right now. SD performance is only so-so and really variable in performance especially with the spiderwebbing text. I ran the Avia test DVD through all the tests and it flew threw with flying colors. There is no way the Avia disc can check resolution as the tv is far beyond the discs capabilities. The overscan was 2.5% and linearity distortion was non-existant. The only adjustments I changed were picture contrast which I lowered to 75, standard, nuetral, backlight to about 25, brightness to 55. The digital channels are set perfect wheras some of the analog channels come in sometimes to bright and sometimes too dark, but not much. Signal strength sits around 85 to 98.My understanding is that the refresh rate is 60hz which I would prefer at least 75hz. Everybody talks about black levels and contrast but I don't see any problem as there is another conventional Sony analog CRT TV 15 ft away that is on the same channel and the contrast and black levels are actually better on the LCD. The same transmitted color banding on some commercials appears on both sets which means it is a transmitted defect. The Avia test disc proves this to be true. There were also no predominent color shifts as was also confirmed by the Avia disc. I did have to adjust the input for the DVD's to the same settings as the tv channels as you have to adjust all 9 inputs to your settings. My upconvert player really helped a bunch with good quality DVD's but some older noisier ones stayed the same. It doesn't do much for a lot of film grain. "Josey Whales" and "Kelley's Hereos" were really improved. You could see the huge difference on the text. My 1440 stuff from the Sony Z1 looked really good. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HatTrick66 Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 This is a timely post for me. After seeing commercial after commercial touting 1080p, I was starting to lament being "stuck" with my new Panasonic plasma only capable of 1080i or 720p. I use the 720p almost exclusively. However, I reminded myself that the brand new, hot off the presses, DTV HD DVR that I just paid a $300 "upgrade" fee for is not even capable of 1080p, and in fact only broadcasts about 20 channels in HD currently. Content is a good feeling, for now...........................[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RM1111 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 720P is good enough, but if you can afford the 1080P, go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviserated Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Will BLUERAY technology improve my Panasonic's 720P picture vs.using my standerd DVD player ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ki Choi Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 My original intension for the post was to share my experience in getting the upgrade bug and successfully fighting it back after seeing the Emmy Awards shows - and thought that what I already have is good and good enough to not to upgrade to 1080P. However, if you are consderding buying a new display or projector get the best image possible to suit your budget. Aviserated: Even feeding our Panasonic with the BluRay, you will get the best possible 720P can produce- no more than 720P. If you already have top upsampling DVD player such as Oppo, I would guess you would not see any differences. OTOH, if you have BluRay player with the true 1080P mastered program vs. conventional DVD upsampled to beyond 720P-BluRay would have better image, IMHO. Maybe others who has actually compared the different set ups can add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 " Will BLUERAY technology improve my Panasonic's 720P picture vs.using my standerd DVD player ?" If you are watching HD BR or HD-DVD content it is quite obviously superior to standard DVD on an AE900. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bismarck Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 JJ...not saying it is BETTER just that at least for now, it is not necessary...if you have blue ray and whatnot...you are seeing a better picture...I got my 50 inch Sony rear projection TV for $1150 after all the rebates and a price match at Sears...the next best price I could find was for last years Sony 50" SXRD at $1899.99 plus tax...ALMOST twice the price after tax...THAT is all I meant...if it was only $300-$500...I would be watching the SXRD...as for maxed out at 720p...not by a long shot...MUCH of it is still in 480... Bill They are definitately maxed out. If you buy a 720p TV now, and feed it anything in HD it is going to look as good as it can. If you have a 1080p TV and feed it a 720P signal, the TV has overhead room for a 1080i/p signl. 720p. For example, if you look at a 1080p and a 720p TV on 720 content you won't be able to tell a difference. But as soon as you switch to say a PS3 the 1080p TV will look better because it is capale of higher resolutions while the 720p will look the same because it was alrady feed the max signal it can take. As for TV's/ You can pickup a 56" JVC 1080p for 2,000or a 50" 720p sony for 1500. There used to be a big price difference, but recently they have come alot closer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSport Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 gotcha...'course I paid 1150 for my Sony in DECEMBER and it is only February with LAST YEAR's SXRD coming in at $1799.00 plus tax...so for the Sonys at least...it was enough of a difference...I thought some of the 720s could scale in 1080...???...anyway...at least in December and for me and for a Sony it was almost $1000...and I don't regret my purchase...I see your point if you do PSP (I don't) or have Blue Ray (I don't)...or have 1080p comin' in on your HD...(I see mostly 720 here in Chicagoland)... Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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